


called wound, but i will answer to knife

by lonelyghosts



Series: the s3 danny/laf au [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: (many of the characters but as mentioned of rn its just kirsch), Canonical Character Death, Gen, Season 3 AU, Trans Female Character, Vampire Danny Lawrence, canon divergence resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29830314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonelyghosts/pseuds/lonelyghosts
Summary: Danny gets brought back.
Relationships: Carmilla Karnstein & Danny Lawrence, Laura Hollis & Danny Lawrence
Series: the s3 danny/laf au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2192949
Kudos: 1





	called wound, but i will answer to knife

**Author's Note:**

> written for my wife (bri) and my wife in law (phoebe). this is just the beginning of a larger au where carmilla resurrects danny at the end of season 3 instead of the dean (because cmonnnnn thats what we DESERVED)
> 
> to be clear also in this house we do not bash any characters except for the men (kirsch is transfem so she is excluded from that), the dean, and perry. Fuck perry lives

Danny gets stabbed right through the back, and it's her own fault- she got too cocky, didn't close the door behind her. The first thought that goes through her mind is: god, I'm such a dumbass. The second one is  _ ow ow ow ow _ .

The funny thing about pain is that it can become dull, too, after a while. Theo is incompetent as ever even when attempting murder- he somehow managed to avoid most of her vital organs when he stabbed her, leaving her bleeding on the Dean's fancy carpet and wondering when it'll be over, when she'll get to move on to something beyond the annoying monotony of agony.

Laura cradles Danny in her arms. In the background Theo is monologuing, which Danny thinks is probably the worst soundtrack anyone could have chosen for her death. Kirsch- sweet, dear Kirsch, who is more a Summer Sister than any of them- tries to exact revenge, but she's bleeding from a wound in her side. She barely makes it a meter before she collapses. 

Danny thinks  _ c'mon, Laura, just put me out of my misery _ , as she closes her eyes, but Laura is so kind she's cruel. Or maybe she just mistakes Danny slipping into unconsciousness for death itself. It is an easy mistake to make, after all. And without treatment- treatment none of them have time for- she will die.

But the battle is ongoing, and there is no moment for rest, not even to put Danny out of her misery. Laura lays Danny out on the floor, and presses a kiss to her forehead. It's a poor funeral pyre, Danny muses as she slips into the dark, but it will have to do. 

She dreams of salt and wine and dirt and cold and drowning. And a red so dark it's almost black.

* * *

And then she opens her eyes again.

There's blood dripping into her open mouth and a prick on her neck, and she surges forward without thinking to grab the arm that's hovering above her face. There's a thirst in her throat that burns and scrapes and makes her latch on to the wrist and gulp, licking and slurping and generally making a mess as she swallows as much as she can. Then the arm is pulled away and she snarls in incoherent rage.

"Jeez, Lawrence, you're a wreck," a voice murmurs, velvet smooth and purring in her ear. "Hold on, I've got- right here-"

A bag of something wet and red is shoved into her face and she clutches it, drains the thing in two long gulps that send energy flooding through her system, and tosses it to the side, feeling-

Strong. For the first time in almost a year, Danny feels… strong again. 

She looks up, and there's Carmilla Karnstein, with a bloody wrist and fangs red with blood, staring down at her with a look of what could almost be pity. 

"Carmilla? I thought you… left..."

Carmilla smirks, but not in the way she normally does- sad, this time, and bitter. "We all did." She crosses her arms over her chest, and for the first time Danny looks around and sees where they are- in the middle of a dark hallway. Laura is sleeping over to the side, her and Lafontaine sharing a blanket. Each one of them is covered in cuts and bruises. 

And then she remembers the knife in her back, and puts a hand to her torso. There are no telltale stitches under her fingertips- just smooth, unbroken skin. She licks her lips and tastes blood.

"Did I..."

"Yep," Carmilla says, popping the P with a satisfaction that is endearing despite Danny's best efforts to hate her. "Sucks, doesn't it? You don't even get the chance to see that bullshit white light. Just lots of dark. And it hurts."

Danny stares down at her hands. There's red underneath her fingernails, and she turns them over to look for the scar across her palm that she got when she was thirteen and learning archery. The arrow went through her hand and broke two bones, and left a sunburst of red scar tissue like stigmata on both sides of her hand. 

Now, there's nothing. Just skin- smooth, unbroken, unscarred.

And now she's noticing more- an ache in her jaw where her canines are supposed to be, like the pain of new teeth growing in after baby teeth fall out. Her reflection is missing from the shattered shards of glass strewn across the hallway. And she can hear Laura and Lafontaine's heartbeats from across the room- a slow, steady beat that makes something in her chest thrill with an emotion she can't put a name to. She wants to call it relief, but she's afraid it might be hunger.

Danny feels around for her own pulse and finds… nothing. She looks up at Carmilla and asks: 

"I'm… am I like you, now?"

Carmilla scoffs. "Don't flatter yourself, Lawrence. Baby vamps like you can hardly be compared to someone as old as I am. But… yes, you are a vampire."

Danny's hand comes up to her neck and she feels for the pinprick marks and there they are- two tiny scabbed-over wounds in her neck. Something in her is breaking, and she can't even be bothered to examine the fractures- she's just left here, sitting on the ground, staring up at a girl who has every reason to despise her. 

She killed Carmilla's sister- crushed her literal heart underneath her foot, broke her in half, laid devastation on her bones. And yes, Danny's ribs were breaking- and all for wanting to protect her sisters, all for wanting to keep them safe- but at the end of it all there was Mattie on the floor and Carmilla staring at her with a grief so far beyond anything Danny's ever known. She still feels guilty for it. It's why she's tried so hard to make it up to everyone, tried to make things right with the meat of her body and her knives, shining white and silver on a battlefield.

And here is Carmilla, standing above her, and the blood in her own veins is Carmilla's, given freely- the only thing that's kept her from being ash on a pyre. Danny is sitting here, blood staining her mouth, because Carmilla gave her a chance. 

"Why?" Danny asks, because there's no other questions that she can even begin to think about. "Why did you- I killed your sister, I was horrible to you, I practically got you killed, you  _ hate  _ me. Why would you bring me back?"

"Just felt like it," Carmilla shrugs, looking away and picking at her fingernails, which is a cop-out if Danny's ever seen one. 

"No, really," she insists. "You didn't have to. No one would have begrudged you for letting me die. But you- you brought me back. Even though you hate me."

Carmilla is still looking away, but this time her gaze catches on Laura- on the way Laura is splayed out, an octopus stealing all the blankets from Lafontaine, still bruised and bleeding. 

"You didn't deserve to die like that," she says, softly, and Danny looks down, feeling her eyes well up with tears.

"Well," she says, softly. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Seriously," Carmilla adds. " _ Please  _ don't mention it. I would frankly rather pretend it never happened- especially the part where I bit your neck homoerotically."

"The part where you  _ WHAT _ ?"


End file.
